Heretofore, a magazine in apparatus of this type is either maintained by a locking device in association with its drive means which forms part of the apparatus--the locking device being merely actuable for the magazine to be removed--or it is simply disposed on a tray which forms part of the apparatus and may or may not have a locking device for securing the magazine on the tray.
Generally, the user may remove the magazine from the apparatus at any time either by removing it from the tray or by releasing the locking device.
Although such magazines are useful, they present a significant disadvantage in that a magazine can be removed from the apparatus while a disc or cassette (hereinafter referred to as a "disc") which it originally stored remains in its operative position in the playback portion of the apparatus. If the user places another magazine on the apparatus, the loader mechanism will either be forced to transfer the disc in the operative position in the playback unit to a storage recess in the magazine which is already occupied, or the loader will attempt to bring a disc into the operative position in the playback unit while another disc is already there. In both cases, the apparatus and the disc may suffer damage and the mechanism will be completely blocked.
Another problem with automatic changers is the slow changer speed and long interval between playing of discs, particularly with changers that allow selection of discs from a magazine as distinguished from merely playing them in succession.